The field of the invention relates to arterial stents. In particular, the field of the invention relates to liquid cast biodegradable arterial stents and methods for preparing liquid cast biodegradable arterial stems in situ in a subject in need thereof.
In 2004, more than 1 million Americans underwent coronary angioplasty and more than 80% of these patients received an arterial stent [1]. While stent technology has improved over the years, including the development of drug-eluting stents, failure rates remain high. The high failure rate of current stent technology is secondary to the development of neointimal hyperplasia and acute arterial thrombosis. Neointimal hyperplasia develops from the exaggerated growth of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) which re-occludes the lumen of the artery. Two FDA-approved drug-eluting stents using sirulimus or paclitaxel were designed to prevent this process. However, recent data have shown that drug-eluting stems are associated with higher rates of in-stent thrombosis secondary to a lack of re-endothelialization at the site of intervention. Pre-formed biodegradable stents may address some of these concerns, yet several challenges must be overcome before pre-formed biodegradable stents will be used clinically, including providing sufficient external radial force, compressibility, and elastic recoil, as well as be developed into a low profile delivery system typically no more than a few millimeters in maximum diameter.